Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays in the US. I like its quirkiness, the creativity and fun. Decorating the house has been something I always looked forward to it.

This year, however, has been different. The Halloween spirit never reached me - I was just too busy - with preparing and teaching my German class, with taking and editing high school senior pictures. I love doing both, but Halloween had to pay the price. My Halloween decoration this year came down to this:

I apologize to the birds for misusing their birdbath... good thing that there are more than just this one in my garden.

However, while walking around my neighborhood I noticed that there were more Halloween decorations than last year, and that made me really happy. The masked pumpkins were here last year, but they have multiplied this October.

They also got some spooky visitors.

The Geek and I love to take a walk after dinner, and we met quite some glowing creatures on our street.

Even though I haven't been in a real Halloween mood I enjoyed all these creatures very much. This one is my favorite - the bat dog!

Kaefer, however, got in the spirit and dressed up. I really really really love it. She made the dress herself - last year, for the Homecoming dance. A great re-use of a lovely dress! I "colored" her hair with a black hairspray so that her hair became darker. She even wore nylons - and it's hot here! Can you see who she is? (Who would wear nylons in 85° weather?)

(Hint: it's a lady from a very popular British TV series...)

Thoughts about my Blog

Over the past few weeks I had been thinking a lot about what to do with my blog. I have been blogging for more than five years and I’ve always enjoyed it. Only recently has the spark of it dulled a bit. I found myself not wanting to write anything. That was a surprise for me since I’ve always liked writing. Playing with words, drawing pictures with sentences. Telling stories.

But sometimes my heart wasn’t fully into it anymore. Something was missing. I felt pressure to write something in order to keep my blog up to date – without really wanting to do that. Pressure made entirely by me – no one else is to blame. So I stopped writing altogether and instead gave more thought to this blog journey.

 Over and over again I realized that the posts I poured my heart into were the ones I enjoyed the most as well as being the ones that received the most responses. It’s almost as if my readers felt that this was the real me in those posts and I’ve hit a nerve with many of you.

I wonder where my heart was when writing those other posts and why I bothered in the first place. What was keeping me from being genuine and real? Where was the “real me” in those moments? It’s not that I want to hide - yes, I’m not always “main stream” – far from it -, I have rough edges and often queer thoughts. That’s who I am. But is there any valid reason not to show that?

This is my blog, I am the author of it. I decide what to show and tell, and I want it to be heartfelt, true and real. No apologies either if I don’t turn up on a regular schedule. Id rather be here less often but when I show up, it’s the real me.

You, my wonderful readers, each one of you simply deserve this.